The Experience of Ron Edwards

A Renaissance Black Man in a White Man's World

A Beacon for Freedom in the City

2005 Blog Entries
November ~ Entry #75

November 9, 2005, Blog #75: Report of the Compliance and Review Committee (CRC) of the Police Community Relations Council (PCRC) Before the Safety Committee of the City of Minneapolis

Thurgood Marshall, first Black Justice of the Supreme Court, is famous for
many statements. A favorite it this: "Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race
nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy."

It was the perception of lawlessness and anarchy on both community and police
sides that led to the nine month series of meetings mediated by the federal
Department of Justice, that resulted in the forming, in December of 2003, of
the Police Community Relations
Council (PCRC), resulting in the signing of The Agreement between
the City of Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Police Department, and the community
unity team.

There were 82 points agreed to. The day of the forming of the PCRC was
a high mark in the quest for justice in a land of laws. But the City
of Minneapolis is not in compliance, as it is not in other areas. My
report today will cover just a small portion of this: the failure of
the city to comply with agreed upon hiring practices in the matter of new hires
for the Minneapolis Police Department.

This should be a joint report. It is not, because the City of Minneapolis
has, is, and will continue to sabotage the PCRC, which will eventually bring
the Department of Justice to battle for justice again because the City, its
Mayor, and its City Council have already made the political calculation of “so
what” when it comes to compliance issues and communities of color.

As duly noted above and widely known within these chambers, the City of Minneapolis
has a shameful history, in terms of people of color, of ignoring the law and
of not being in compliance with both federal and local laws. This Report
provides our examination on key points of the city’s non-compliance, with special
emphasis on the process of hiring members of protected classes, especially people
of color, for positions on the police force.

Please receive this report as part of an ongoing examination of the compliance
with The Agreement of December 2003. It is important to restate that
The Agreement between the City of Minneapolis, its police department, and the
unity community team, was negotiated by the Department of Justice, in the document
identified as Memorandum of Agreement.

It will not be necessary to take a long time to report on how the agreement
has been violated.

The genesis for that statement is contained in a packet of Emails provided
by the Minneapolis Police Department on Thursday, October 20, 2005, at approximately
2:22 p.m. The emails were from Deputy Chief Lucy Gerold to a host of
individuals. These emails support the concerns expressed by community
members as early as February 2004.

We call your attention to the minutes of the PCRC meeting of March 31, 2004.

As early as March 2004, we recognized that there were ongoing problems on the
city side regarding the implementation of the document referred to as “The Agreement.”
But it was a year later, in the spring of 2005, that we saw the disastrous
results of non-compliance beginning the destruction of the mediation agreement.
As elected politicians discussed law and order, crime fighting tactics,
and pubic safety, it become quite clear to communities of color that there were
no plans whatsoever to guarantee even minimal inclusion of protected class members,
specifically people of color, in the compliance areas of The Agreement.

In the meeting of August 22, 2005, it became clear that there was no commitment
whatsoever (Parks sat down to stand up) to an action of diversity in the recruitment
and hiring of police officers.

Surely the City of Minneapolis needs its own Rosa Parks, or a Joe Parks, to
stand up for diversity hiring by sitting down and not moving to the back of
the compliance bus.

In July of 2005, Mr. Champa had warned that the recruitment and hiring process
as it related to people of color and the Police Department, was going to be
a disaster and a failure. In fact, in early September 2005, I personally
appeared before this committee and asked for your help in acquiring the Champa
report and any other information that was in Mr. Champa’s and the City of Minneapolis
possession. I returned a month later, joined by other colleagues, indicating
that the information had not been forthcoming, and renewed my request on behalf
of the committee, and on behalf of The Agreement. And once again, nothing
was forthcoming.

We also appeared before Civil Service Committee. We appealed before
the office of the Mayor of the City of Minneapolis directly, through the office
of Deputy Mayor David Fey.

In mid-September 2005, in a meeting at Harrison Middle School, we again
asked Deputy Mayor David A. Fey for a copy of the report of Mr. Champa.

This is why we quoted Justice Thurgood Marshall:

Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race
nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy.

I trust that the irony is not lost on this august assembly that the lawlessness
in question deals with the City itself and its police department.

We take note that the Minneapolis Police department was served notice by us
on June 15, 2005, that there was non-compliance on 25 action items that were
part of The Agreement. The City of Minneapolis is facing two civil rights
complaints filed in the past ten days, wih more civil rights complaints on the
way. See attached minutes, June 15, 2005.

Examples of specific areas of concern regarding non-compliance are the following
areas lacking compliance:

Community partnerships

Assistance of PCRC in developing a police recruitment strategy

The existence of a focus group regarding such hires

Review of strategy with PCRC in the MPD’s recruitment strategy

Diversifying the pool of candidates for initial hires.

Also our concern with a final review of the overall hiring process

These are just some of the 25 violations. Of course we now understand
why there was no response to our requests for information: it was because
there was never any intention to diversify the Minneapolis Police Department.

Recall the adage that the proof is in the pudding. The flavor of the
pudding for new hires for the police department is decidedly vanilla.
Not that it needs to be chocolate. But we were expecting a swirl of both.
That would have reflected compliance.

This took place on the watch of this Council, this Mayor, this Police Department.
Such non-compliance must be encouraged, and this council and mayor did
the encouraging.

It is quite clear, that, according to the Emails of September 2nd , 2005, that
even though chief William McManus gave a direct order NOT to go ahead with an
all white list, NOT to make any offers to mostly whites, NOT to sign off on
the list that didn’t comply with The Agreement, that he was overridden, countermanded,
and reversed by the office of the Mayor.

Just a week ago, in the meeting of the hiring committee, at the 5th Precinct,
we were told that the Mayor, acting on the powers invested in him by the City
Charter, countermanded the orders of Chief William McManus and circumvented
the concerns of a commitment to diversity. It was, for members of the
Public Safety Committee, business as usual. The concern was to get more
white police officers on the street. Once again, diversity would have
to wait; again, as it is always pushed out, hence the plaintive cry of a Met’s
fan, “there is always next year.” The difference is that the Mets
always had a theoretical chance and did eventually win the World Series. Not
so in Minneapolis for people of color: there is not even a theoretical
chance of compliance of hiring practices as the anarchy of the City and its
departments continues to drive the dynamic of hiring people of color.

This represents business as usual. Their future of inclusion of all
communities in the police department is not important to this Mayor and to this
Council. In other words, “to hell with The Agreement.”

In closing, our assessment is this, in the famous phrase of Apollo 13:
Minneapolis, we have a problem. And the inability of Minneapolis to deal
with this very central problem has done irreparable harm and damage to the communities
of color and to their opportunity for full inclusion in law enforcement in this
city. Be advised that it is our intention to see that this report is
delivered as soon as possible to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as we will
seek to have the Minneapolis Police Department be examined regarding its compliance
with the law and the Agreement. The purpose of our petition to Department
of Justice will be to initiate the necessary steps to place this department
under Federal Receivership.

Ron hosts “Black Focus” on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays,
5-6 pm. Formerly head of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the
Urban League, he continues his “watchdog” role for Minneapolis.
Order his book, hear his voice, read his solution papers, and read his
between columns “web log” at www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.

Permission is granted to reproduce The Minneapolis Story columns, blog entires and solution papers. Please
cite the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder and www.TheMinneapolisStory.com for the columns. Please
cite www.TheMinneapolisStory.com for blog entries and solution papers.